Question

"Editha" by William Dean Howells is a story about characters who ritualistically follow the popular beliefs and norms of society even though they may be ignorant and emotionally distanced from actual facts and circumstances. Which two lines in the excerpt suggest this character trait? Her father went with her on the long railroad journey from northern New York to western Iowa; (1) he had business out at Davenport, and he said (2)he could just as well go then as any other time; and he went with her to the little country town where George's mother lived in a little house on the edge of the illimitable cornfields, under trees pushed to a top of the rolling prairie. (3)George's father had settled there after the Civil War, as so many other old soldiers had done; but they were Eastern people, and Edith fancied touches of the East in the June rose overhanging the front door, and the garden with early summer flowers stretching from the gate of the paling fence. (4)It was very low inside the house, and so dim, with the closed blinds, that they could scarcely see one another: (5) Edith tall and black in her drapes which filled the air with the smell of their dyes; (6)her father standing decorously apart with his hat on his forearm, as at funerals; a woman rested in a deep arm-chair, and the woman who had let the strangers in stood behind the chair.

Answer 1

The answer is the first sentence and the last sentence. to be completely honest with you.

Answer 2

It was very low inside the house, and so dim, with the closed blinds, that they could scarcely see one another;

Her father standing decorously apart with his hat on his forearm, as at funerals; a woman rested in a deep arm-chair, and the woman who had let the strangers in stood behind the chair.

Editha, by William Dean Howells, is an antiwar story published in 1905. Its characters are people who greatly value custom and ritual, even when it is objectively inconvenient or awkward for them to do so.

The two chosen lines exemplify that character trait. In the first sentence, the house has the blinds closed, as was common for houses where the family had recently experienced a loss or a tragedy. This rule is followed, even though it meant that the characters were barely able to see each other.

The second sentence has a similar example, as Edith's father stands at a distance and with his hat in his hands. We are told this is the way it is done at funerals, which is consistent with the previous sentence and with the character's personality traits.